. That these were so many nations, of the families of Eber, may be seen from the state in which they lived at that period. In the most ancient time, as has been said before, nations were distinguished into families, and these into house-holds. Each nation acknowledged one father, from whom it was named. As they were multiplied, the sons of the one father in like manner constituted households, families, and nations; and so on. So it was with these sons of Joktan, as we may see it was with the sons of Jacob, who afterwards when multiplied constituted tribes, each one of which acknowledged one of the sons of Jacob, from whom it was named, as its father; and yet all taken together were from Jacob, and were called Jacob. Just so these nations were from Eber, and were called Hebrews.
. That by these nations are signified so many rituals, is evident from the fact that in the Word names never signify anything else than actual things; for in its internal sense the Word relates only to the Lord, to His Kingdom in the heavens and on earth, and consequently to the church and the things of the church. Such is the case with these names. And as Joktan, a son of Eber, signifies the external worship of this new church, as was said before, so his sons can signify nothing else than things of external worship, which are rituals, and in fact so many kinds of rituals. But what these kinds of rituals are, it is impossible to say, because they are determined by their relation to the worship itself, and until this is known nothing can be said about its rituals; nor would it be of any use to know them. Neither do the names recur in the Word, except Sheba, Ophir, and Havilah; and they are not of this stock; for the Sheba and Havilah elsewhere spoken of in the Word were of those who are called sons of Ham, as is evident at (verse 7) of this chapter; and the case is the same with Ophir.
GENESIS 10:26-29previous
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